Many fields of medical treatment and healthcare require monitoring of certain body functions, physical states and conditions, and patient behaviors. Thus, e.g., for patients suffering from diabetes, a regular check of the blood glucose level forms an important part of the daily routine. The blood glucose level has to be determined quickly and reliably, often several times per day. Medical devices are used to facilitate the collection of medical information without unduly disturbing the lifestyle of the patient. A large number of medical devices for monitoring various body functions are commercially available. Also, medical treatment and healthcare may require monitoring of exercise, diet, meal times, stress, work schedules and other activities and behaviors.
To reduce the frequency of necessary visits to doctors, the idea of home care gained popularity over the recent years. Technological advancements in medicine led to the increased use of medical devices. Many of these medical devices, such as meters and medicine delivery devices, are able to collect and store measurements and other data for long periods of time. Other devices, such as computers, portable digital assistants (PDAs), and cell phones, have been adapted to medical uses by the development of software directed to the collection of healthcare data. These advancements led to the development of health management systems that enable collection and use of large numbers of variables and large amounts of healthcare data.
A common feature of health management systems is the ability to convey information. Information can include raw data, graphical representations of data such as statistical display objects, explanations and textual interpretations, inferential information and so on. Communication and understanding can be improved by using interactive graphs to convey information. Interactivity is achieved using computing devices and software applications. Generally described, individuals can interact with software applications residing on computing devices, such as personal computers, hand-held computers, mobile computing devices, and the like in a variety of ways. In one particular embodiment, the development of graphical user interfaces facilitate user interaction with these various software applications resident in or accessible by the computing device. For example, a user may manipulate a graphical user interface to interact with a data processing application or to communicate with other computing devices and/or users via a communication network.
In a typical embodiment, a graphical user interface may display a number of display objects that are individually manipulable by a user utilizing a user input device. For example, the user can utilize a computer keyboard, mouse, touch screen, touch pad, roller ball or voice commands and the like to select a particular display object and to further initiate an action corresponding to the selected display object. While user input devices have been described in the context of devices configured to manipulate display objects and provide commands to the computing device, generally speaking a user input device is any device capable of providing user input to a computing device and input is not limited to the provision of commands. User input may additionally comprise data which may be provided by medical devices, or computing devices including PDAs and phones.
In the area of diabetes care, several software packages are available for use with a glucose meter or insulin pump. These software packages divide a day up in a number of discrete time blocks. Exemplary time blocks include Pre-Breakfast, Post-Breakfast, Pre-Lunch, Post-Lunch, Pre-Dinner, Post-Dinner, and Night. Some of these software packages permit the altering of an endpoint of the time blocks. Further, some of these software packages permit the altering of an endpoint of the time blocks independently for working days and non-working days.